SEARCH · Search PubMed

Results for “Language Tests”

Search indexed PubMed citations on genomics, clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health. Explore titles, authors and supplied subject terms, then open the PubMed record.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 1,459 records · Page 81Linked to original sources

PubMed2002

A functional magnetic resonance imaging study of language processing and its cognitive correlates in prematurely born children.

OBJECTIVE: Abnormalities in brain structure, cognition, and behavior have been described in children born prematurely. However, no direct in vivo evidence has yet demonstrated abnormal neural processing in these children. Our aim was to compare brain activity associated with phonologic and semantic processing of language between term and preterm children using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). METHODS: fMRI scans were acquired during a passive language comprehension task in 26 preterm children at 8 years of age and in 13 term community control children who were comparable in age, sex, maternal education, and minority status. IQ was assessed using a standard measure of intelligence. RESULTS: The pattern of brain activity identified in a semantic processing task in the preterm children closely resembled the pattern of brain activity identified in a phonologic processing task in term controls. The greater this resemblance in the preterm children, the lower their verbal comprehension IQ scores and the poorer their language comprehension during the scanning task. CONCLUSIONS: Preterm children with the poorest language comprehension seemed not to fully engage normal semantic processing pathways in a language comprehension task. These children instead engaged pathways that normal term children used to process meaningless phonologic sounds. Aberrant processing of semantic content in these preterm children may account in part for their lower verbal IQ scores.

Benzophenones↗

PubMed1992

Behavior and parental expectations of child pedestrians.

Pedestrian injuries remain the most common cause of death from trauma for young school-age children. This study was based on the hypothesis that parents' abilities to accurately assess their children's street-crossing skills vary with the crossing test and age of the children, being less accurate for younger children. Children at three developmental levels (aged 5 through 6, 7 through 8, and 9 through 10 years) and their parents were evaluated on four street-crossing tests and a control vocabulary test. For each test, children's answers were compared to parents' estimates of their children's performance. Parents overestimated the abilities of their 5-through 6-year-olds on all four tests (P less than .01). Parents overestimated the abilities of 7- through 8-year-olds on two of the tests (P less than .05) and parents accurately assessed the abilities of the 9- through 10-year-olds. On the vocabulary test, parents overestimated their children's performance at all age levels (P less than .01). The results support the hypothesis and indicate that parents' expectations for their children's pedestrian skills are least accurate for 5- and 6-year-olds, with the mismatch decreasing as children get older. Inaccurate expectations of children's pedestrian skills may be fruitful target for injury prevention programs.

Accidents, Traffic↗

PubMed2001

Prospective assessment of estrogen replacement therapy and cognitive functioning: atherosclerosis risk in communities study.

Studies of humans have not confirmed the suggestion from animal studies that estrogen replacement therapy may have an inverse relation with cognitive function decline. Because many of these studies have been marred by design or methodological problems, such as a small sample size, failure to control for confounding variables, or the use of a cross-sectional design, the present study was conducted in a large cohort of middle-aged postmenopausal women participating in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) Study. The study population consisted of 2,859 women aged 48-67 years, whose cognitive function was tested at the second (1990-1992) and fourth (1996-1998) visits of the ARIC Study using three instruments: the Delayed Word Recall Test, Digit Symbol Subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised, and Word Fluency Test. After multiple adjustment, no consistent patterns of cognitive changes between the two cohort visits could be detected according to current use or duration of use of estrogen replacement therapy. Thus, the results of the present study do not support the hypothesis that estrogen replacement therapy may slow age-related cognitive decline, at least as it applies to relatively young postmenopausal women.

Aged↗

PubMed1988

Proverb and idiom comprehension in Alzheimer disease.

Twenty-nine patients diagnosed with Probable Alzheimer Disease were administered tests of word, familiar phrases (idioms and proverbs), and novel phrase comprehension. From the early stage of the disease, patients performed worse at understanding familiar phrases than single words or novel phrases. The results uphold common observations that AD patients have difficulty interpreting abstract meanings. Cognitive variables responsible for poor idiom/proverb comprehension and the clinical implications of this new protocol are discussed.

Aged↗

PubMed1994

Does implicit memory extend to legal and illegal nonwords?

In 4 experiments, implicit and explicit memory for words and nonwords were compared. In Experiments 1-2 memory for words and legal nonwords (e.g., kers) was assessed with an identification (implicit) and a recognition (explicit) memory task: Robust priming was obtained for both words and nonwords, and the priming effects dissociated from explicit memory following a levels-of-processing manipulation (Experiment 1) and following a study-test modality shift (Experiment 2). In Experiment 3, priming for legal and illegal nonwords (e.g., xyks) was observed on an identification task, and the effects dissociated from explicit memory following a levels-of-processing manipulation. Finally, in Experiment 4, significant inhibitory priming for legal nonwords was observed when a lexical-decision task was used. Results suggest that implicit memory can extend to legal and illegal nonwords. Implications for theories of implicit memory are discussed.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1990

Central auditory processing in normal-hearing elderly adults.

Central auditory and linguistic functions were assessed in a group of 25 essentially normal-hearing, cognitively intact elderly adults. Inclusion in the study required normal performance on the Mini-Mental State Examination Procedures used to evaluate central auditory performance included monosyllabic word lists, the Synthetic Sentence Identification-Ipsilateral Competing Message (SSI-ICM) test, the Dichotic Digits test and the Staggered Spondaic Word test. Linguistic competence was assessed utilizing subtests of the Boston Diagnostic Aphasia test and the Revised Token test. Results indicate that central auditory involvement can occur without a concomitant decline in peripheral hearing sensitivity, cognitive function, or linguistic competence. Our findings also suggest, that for the type of individuals included in this study, the SSI-ICM appears to be the most sensitive measure to changes in central auditory processing abilities with advancing age.

Aged↗

PubMed1988

Comprehension of monologues and dialogues by aphasic listeners.

This study examined the frequently heard claim that aphasic listeners have more difficulty understanding speech in situations where there are multiple speakers than in situations where there is a single speaker. Nine stories about everyday events were written and videotaped as monologues, dialogues with one dominant speaker, and dialogues with both speakers contributing comparable amounts of information. Eighteen aphasic and 9 non-brain-damaged adults watched and listened to the videotapes. Listeners' comprehension and retention of the stories were tested by yes/no questions following each story. The three versions of the stories were understood and remembered equally well by aphasic and non-brain-damaged listeners, suggesting that listening to two speakers does not appreciably increase comprehension difficulty. These results suggest that factors other than the extent to which different speakers contribute to the topic of conversation are responsible for aphasic listeners' reported difficulties in comprehending multiple-speaker conversational interactions.

Adult↗

PubMed1993

Effects of surface features on word-fragment completion in amnesic subjects.

Patients with amnesia resulting from alcoholic Korsakoff syndrome and elderly control patients studied a list of words in two typographies (typed and handwritten) and then received a word-fragment completion test (e.g., -ys-e-y for mystery) in which the test cues also varied in typography. Unlike the elderly control patients, the amnesic patients did not show greater priming effect when the typography at test matched that at study. The amount of typography-dependent priming was positively correlated with the score on the Wechsler Memory Scale. These results suggest that the effects of typography change on repetition priming in word-fragment completion reflect explicit recollection, and that the representation that supports repetition priming effects observed with amnesic subjects in the word-fragment completion task does not code typography information.

Aged↗

PubMed2007

Orthostatic hypotension and attention in Parkinson's disease with and without dementia.

To compare frequency and degree of orthostatic hypotension (OH) in Parkinson's disease (PD) and Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD) and its effect on attention and word fluency, blood pressure (BP) and heart rate changes during tilt were determined in 10 PD and 8 PDD patients. Attention and word fluency were evaluated in supine and tilted position using standard neuropsychological tests. OH defined as systolic BP (SBP) drop of >/=20 mmHg and/or diastolic BP (DBP) drop of >/=10 mmHg was present in 5 PDD patients and in 2 PD patients. SBP drop was significantly greater in PDD than in PD patients (P < 0.05). Whereas word fluency was unaffected by tilt in both patient groups, attention as assessed with the Test of Everyday Attention (TEA) deteriorated significantly in the PDD group, correlating with blood pressure response (DeltaSBP and TEA-2, r = 0.828, P < 0.05; DeltaDBP and TEA-2, r = 0.828, P < 0.05). We conclude that OH is frequent in PDD and should be addressed therapeutically since it may exacerbate attentional dysfunction.

Attention↗

PubMed1995

The association of apolipoprotein E polymorphism with memory: a population based study.

Several studies have shown an association between the apolipoprotein epsilon 4 allele and Alzheimer's disease (AD). The allele epsilon 2 has been associated with survival and longevity. We wanted to examine whether the relationship between cognitive efficiency and apolipoprotein E polymorphism (APOE) exists in a random sample of 916 non-demented elderly subjects. Episodic memory was examined with the list learning test, and with immediate and delayed recall of the figures. Semantic memory was examined with the Category and Verbal Fluency Tests. Constructional abilities were examined by copying the figures. Attention functions were examined with Trail Making A and B tests. We found that subjects with APOE E2/2 and 2/3 phenotypes showed better learning ability than those subjects with the APOE E2/4, 3/4 or 4/4 phenotypes. Impaired memory was not related to the excess of cardiovascular diseases in the subjects with APOE E2/4, 3/4, 4/4 phenotypes. Thus they may be associated, at least partly, with genetic factors.

Aged↗

PubMed2002

The contribution of the right cerebral hemisphere to the recovery from aphasia: a single longitudinal case study.

We examined the role of the right cerebral hemisphere in the recovery from aphasia of HJ, a 50-year-old right-handed and unilingual man who suffered from severe aphasia caused by an extensive left hemisphere (LH) lesion. He was followed-up over 10 months at 4-month intervals, with a lateralized lexical decision task (LDT), an attentional task, and a language battery. Testing started when HJ was 2 months poststroke. In the LDT, words were presented to central vision or lateralized to the left or right visual hemifield. At each test period, we examined the effect of the degree of imageability (high vs. low), and the grammatical class (noun vs. verb) of the targets on HJ's response times and error rates, with left visual field, right visual field, and central vision presentations. The results of the experiment showed that the pattern obtained with the LDT could not be accounted for by fluctuations in attention. There was an interaction of grammatical class with degree of imageability with left visual field displays only. The right hemisphere (RH) was faster with high-imageability words than with low-imageability words, regardless of their grammatical class. There was also an overall RH advantage on response times at 2 and 6 months after onset. This RH predominance coincided with a major recovery of language comprehension and the observation of semantic paralexias, while no major change in language expression was observed at that point. Ten months after onset, the pattern of lateralization changed, and response times for the LDT with either presentation site were equivalent. This LH improvement coincided with some recovery of language expression at the single-word level. The results of this study suggest that, in cases of severe aphasia caused by extensive LH lesions, the RH may play an important role in the recovery process. Furthermore, these results show that the contribution of the two cerebral hemispheres to recovery may vary overtime and affect specific aspects of language.

Aphasia↗

PubMed2005

A structural factor analysis of vocabulary knowledge and relations to age.

Vocabulary knowledge may not be a unidimensional construct, and the relations between vocabulary knowledge and age may depend on the aspect of vocabulary knowledge being assessed. In this study, we examined the factor structure of a vocabulary test given to a large nationally representative sample of individuals (N approximately 20,500). Results indicated that the vocabulary test is not unidimensional but bidimensional, with Basic Vocabulary and Advanced Vocabulary factors. An analysis of age differences indicates that basic vocabulary is highest around the age of 30, with a negative relation to age in late adulthood; in contrast, advanced vocabulary is unrelated to age between ages 35 and 70. Cohort effects may explain some of the differential age trend.

Adult↗

PubMed1989

Visual evoked potentials: relation to adult speechreading and cognitive function.

This study investigated the putative relationship between visual evoked potentials (VEPs) and specific aspects of speechreading. The nature and constraints of the relationship between VEPs and cognitive functioning was also examined. The original finding of Shepherd, DeLavergne, Frueh, and Clobridge (1977) that visual-neural speed (VN 130) predicts speechreading skill was not replicated. However, the picture is rather complex in that we find significant correlations for some context-free word discrimination and sign-alphabet testing conditions. These correlations occur only for the VN 130/P 200 peak-to-peak amplitude measure, not for neural speed. Nevertheless, visual-neural speed (VN 130 and P 200) was relevant to certain aspects of long-term memory access (i.e., letter matching, Posner & Mitchell, 1967) and to complex short-term memory function (i.e., reading span, Baddeley, Logie, Nimmo-Smith, & Brereton, 1985).

Adolescent↗

PubMed2005

Grammatical sensitivity: its origins and potential contribution to early word reading skill.

A three-phase longitudinal study examined the origins of grammatical sensitivity and its usefulness as a predictor of early word-level reading. At about 4 years of age, children were given a range of language and cognitive tests. One year later, the children were given a further series of language and cognitive tests, this time including grammatical sensitivity, phonological sensitivity, and nonword repetition. Another year later, word-level reading achievement was assessed. Overall, grammatical sensitivity and phonological sensitivity were more firmly grounded in earlier language ability than in cognitive ability. Phonological sensitivity and nonword repetition showed reliable predictive associations with subsequent word reading skills. Grammatical sensitivity did not.

Child, Preschool↗

PubMed2000

Semantic priming in patients with Alzheimer and semantic dementia.

Semantic priming for pairs of words having semantic relation (members of the same category) but not associative relation was tested in four patients with mild Alzheimer-type dementia (AD), three patients with semantic dementia (SD) and three normal controls. Priming effects were exhibited by all the AD patients and normal controls but by none of the SD patients. The facilitation did not differ depending on whether words were written in kanji or kana. The nature of semantic deficits in AD and SD is discussed.

Aged↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Hemispheric asymmetries in memory processes as measured in a false recognition paradigm.

Although memory differs in important ways between the left and right cerebral hemispheres, the nature of these differences remains controversial. We examined this issue in two experiments using a false memory paradigm that allowed novel tests of two theories that have not been assessed in a common paradigm previously. Lists of semantically related words (e.g., bed, rest, wake...), all highly associated to one "critical" word (e.g., sleep), were presented auditorily during a study phase. Memory for both the related words and the critical words was measured in a subsequent old/new recognition test using divided-visual-field word presentations. The most important results were that the ability to correctly reject previously unpresented words was greater when test items were presented to the right visual field/left hemisphere (RVF/LH) than to the left visual field/right hemisphere (LVF/RH) and that participants were more confident in correctly rejecting unpresented words when test items were presented to the RVF/LH than to the LVF/RH. Results were in line with the theory that associative activation of semantic information is restricted in the left hemisphere but diffuse in the right; however, these results contrasted with the theory that memory traces are interpretive in the left hemisphere but veridical in the right. A potential resolution to the seemingly contradictory theories of asymmetries in memory processing is briefly discussed.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed1992

Young children's idiom comprehension: trying to get the picture.

Young children (3.5-6.5 years of age) were tested for their comprehension of 10 common idioms in context and no-context conditions. Results revealed a significant linear trend for children to make more literal responses with increasing age. Children of this age did not find the story contexts helpful in interpreting the idioms. A range of comprehension scores was found among the individual idioms, but semantic transparency (as judged by adults) was not related to comprehension. Child-internal and methodologic variables influencing idiom comprehension are discussed.

Child↗

PubMed1988

Similarities and differences in a set of 7-year-old triplets, two of whom are monozygotic.

This paper describes three sisters, triplets, age 7 years, 2 months, two of whom derive from a single ovum, the third from a second ovum. As such, they provide an opportunity to examine the relative impact of heredity on certain of their physical, developed, and acquired abilities and characteristics. In addition to a comparison of such physical traits as height, weight, refractive status, axial length, and so on, certain (developed) sensory-motor and (acquired) cognitive and language measures are reported, such as binocular status, visual and auditory analysis skills, intelligence quotient, and (expressive and receptive) language abilities. Because all three children have lived in (more or less) the same pre- and post-natal environment, we assume that whatever concordance the monozygotic (MZ) pair displays that is not shared by their dizygotic (DZ) sister is attributable to heredity. (It does not necessarily follow, however, that any discordance between the two MZ sisters or any concordance between one of them and their DZ sister is attributable to environment.

Body Height↗